Ninth Man

ABSTRACT

What is new in the art our invention pertains to is: A game similar enough to chess to attract chess players yet different enough from chess, in part due to The Ninth Man&#39;s larger playing field, that even experienced chess players must rethink old strategies because The Ninth Man is a totally distinct game on it&#39;s own.

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The Title of this invention is The Ninth Man. The Ninth Man is aboard game similar to chess but played on a board with eighty onesquares, nine across and nine down, alternately dark & light like acheckerboard or chessboard, with thirty six game pieces, eighteen dark &eighteen light. The Ninth Man game is named after the most powerful gamepiece also named The Ninth Man.

[0002] There are no Related Applications to cross reference to this isour first application for a patent.

[0003] The Ninth Man has no connection to any type of federal sponsoredresearch or development.

[0004] There is no reference to any sequence listing.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

[0005] I, Janie A Sheehan, US citizen, 18705 SE Lk Holm Rd, Auburn Wash.98092, my brother-in-law, Steven L Hatt, US citizen, 12020 42^(nd) AveS, Seattle Wash. 98168, and my brother, Thomas P Garner, US citizen,4545 Valley Dr, Kelseyville Calif. 95451, were playing chess togetherand I could not win against either of them as they've played for manyyears. To put us all on the same level of play, we decided to invent anew game similar to chess but different, with more game pieces, a biggerboard (81 squares instead of 64) & different & additional moves. Weinvented The Ninth Man, named after the most powerful game piece.

[0006] The field of endeavor to which this invention pertains would be:Board Games.

SUMMARY OF THIS INVENTION IS

[0007] A board game played, by two opposing players, on acheckerboard-patterned board of 81 squares (9 across & 9 down). Eachplayer has 18 game pieces: 9 pawns, 2 rooks, two bishops, two knights, aqueen, a king, and a Ninth Man. The object of the game is the same as inchess: Get the opponent's king in checkmate.

DRAWINGS

[0008] 2 drawings are attached: #1 is The Ninth Man board & all 36pieces set up for a game; #2 is a two dimensional drawing of The NinthMan board set up for a game with the names of the pieces written ontheir respective squares.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0009] The Ninth Man is a board game for two players, played on acheckerboard-patterned board with 81 squares, 9 squares across by 9squares down. Each player has 18 game pieces: 9 Pawns, 2 Rooks, 2Bishops, 2 Knights, a Queen, a King, and a Ninth Man. One player haswhite or light-colored pieces and the other player has black ordark-colored pieces. The Ninth Man is the tallest piece, the Queen &King are 20% shorter than The Ninth Man, the Bishops, Knights, and Rooksare 30% shorter than The Ninth Man, the Pawns are 40% shorter than TheNinth Man. On the handmade board shown in drawing #1 the squares areeach 2 inches by 2 inches, The Ninth Man is 5 inches tall, the King &Queen are 4 inches tall, the Bishops, Knights & Rooks are 3.5 inchestall and the Pawns are 3 inches tall. We also made a smaller set thatfolds up for traveling but the size-proportion remains the same. Theobject of the game is the same as in chess: Get your opponent's King incheckmate. The board is set up as shown in the attached drawings. Thisset-up is the same as in the standard game of chess except The Ninth Manis placed between the King & Queen and the Queen-side Bishop & Knightare reversed in order to place each Bishop on opposing colors. The Pawnsmove one square forward per turn except for the first move for each Pawnwhen they may choose to move either one or two squares forward. Pawnscapture other pieces by moving forward diagonally one square landing ona square occupied by an opposing piece. If a player is able to get aPawn completely across the board to the opposing player's outside, orKing's, row of squares, that Pawn becomes any piece his player choosesexcept another King. This move is called Pawn Promotion. Logically theplayer would choose to make the Pawn a Ninth Man. Bishops movediagonally forward or backward as many squares as their player chooses,as long their path is not blocked by another piece. If the first piecein a Bishop's path belongs to the opposing side, the Bishop capturesthat piece by landing on it's square. The Rooks move in a straight line,forward or backward horizontally or vertically, as many squares as aplayer chooses until blocked by another piece unless that piece belongsto the opposing side in which case the Rook may capture the opposingpiece by landing on it's square.

[0010] The Knights always move three squares at a time in an “L”pattern, one square forward or backward, two squares left or right; twosquares forward or backward, one square left or right; one square leftor right, two squares forward or backward; two squares left or right,one square forward or backward. Knights may pass over other piecesduring this three square move but must land on an empty square or asquare occupied by an opposing piece in which case the knight capturesthat piece. The Queen can move in any direction, forward, backward,left, right, or diagonally, as long as the move is in a straight line,as many squares as her player chooses until the Queen is blocked byanother piece unless that piece belongs to the opposing side, in whichcase the queen may capture the opposing piece by landing on the samesquare. The King can move in any direction but only one square per move.The King can capture an opposing player's piece the same as any otherpiece does, by landing on a square occupied by an opposing player'spiece, but at no time during the game may a player move any piece whichleaves his or her King in check. The Ninth Man can maneuver both as aQueen and as a Knight but player must choose either Queen's move orKnight's move each time The Ninth Man is moved. Because The Ninth Man issuch a powerful piece, a player must warn his opponent when a player'smove puts his opponent's Ninth Man in danger. This warning is calledCheck Nine. If you fail to warn Check Nine, you lose the opportunity tocapture your opponent's Ninth Man on your next move. Castling is acombination move involving a participating Rook & the King, allowed onlywhen neither piece has previously been moved and there are no otherpieces between the participating Rook & King blocking this move.Castling allows a player to move the participating Rook two spaceshorizontally toward the center of the board and then place the King onthe other side of the Rook. The player who captures the opposingplayer's King (gets the opposing player's King in checkmate) wins thegame. Fine point rules, such as when a move is considered to have beencompleted, follow the professional rules of chess.

What we claim as our invention is:
 1. The Ninth Man game piece who canmaneuver as both a Queen and a Knight maneuvers in a game of chess. 2.The Ninth Man game board with 81 squares alternately dark & lightcolored in the manner of a checkerboard or chessboard.
 3. The Ninth Mangame in it's entirety, because it is a totally separate and distinctgame. (By inventing a game board with 81 squares and adding anadditional Pawn and inventing The Ninth Man with his dualmaneuverability the dynamics become different and are advanced to ahigher, more intense level of play than those of chess, resulting in anew game that stands on it's own merits. An experienced chess player mayfind The Ninth Man such a challenging game that a game of traditionalchess will seem mundane.)